A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for creating investment securities from pools of residential mortgages. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing system and method that (i) analyzes the risk elements of interest-rate derivatives and mortgage pools, (ii) structures floating-rate securities from interest rate derivative and mortgage pool components and (iii) administers the resulting securities.
B. Description of the Related Art
A pool of fixed-rate mortgages, by itself, can be undesirable as an investment because of the possibility of prepayments. A borrower on a residential mortgage generally can pay the balance of the loan at any time (“prepay”) without substantial penalty or with no penalty. If this happens, an investor in the flow pool must find an alternative investment for the amount prepaid. Moreover, mortgage borrowers are more likely to exercise their prepayment options at times when interest rates are low. Thus, the investor likely will have to reinvest the mortgage prepayments at rates of return less than the rate of return on the original investment.
The prepayment characteristic of a mortgage pool destabilizes its market value. A decline in interest rates causes an increase in the mortgage pool's prepayments, magnifying the reinvestment problem and negatively affecting the value of the mortgage pool. A rise in interest rates causes a decrease in prepayments, locking investors into a below market-rate investment. Moreover, this negative effect of prepayments on value is difficult to predict. As a result, some investment accounts have policies prohibiting or limiting the acquisition of mortgage pools.
The destabilizing effect of a mortgage pool's prepayments can be reduced by a variety of methods, including transforming part of the pool's cash flow into a floating-rate bond. A floating-rate bond is one with an interest rate that is reset periodically based on an index and that varies directly with changes in the index. When a floating-rate bond is carved out of a fixed-rate mortgage pool, the remaining cash flow has an interest rate that varies inversely with changes in the index. This remaining cash flow sometimes is called the companion inverse-rate bond. A commonly used index for floating-rate bonds and companion inverse-rate bonds is the arithmetic mean of the London interbank offered quotations for Eurodollar deposits with a maturity of one month (“LIBOR”). Typically, the rate is reset on a monthly basis.
The interest rate on a floating-rate bond usually has a minimum value or “margin” and a maximum value or “cap”. The margin and cap are set so that the floating-rate bond sells at or close to a price equal to the bond's principal amount (a price of “par”). Since the interest rate on a floating-rate bond is reset monthly to current interest rates, the floating-rate bond maintains its par value in the secondary mortgage market, unless the rate is constrained by its cap. This market value stability makes a mortgage-backed floating-rate bond suitable as a money market investment. Institutions have substantial sums that may be invested for short periods of time, provided the sums can be invested in instruments that will retain their value and are easily liquidated. These sums ordinarily are not invested in mortgage pools for the reasons discussed earlier. However, they may be invested in mortgage-backed floating-rate bonds. By and large, investors in money market instruments are indifferent to prepayments on the underlying mortgage pool because the prepayments easily may be reinvested on terms comparable to those of the original investment.
Traditionally, mortgage-backed floating-rate bonds were issued entirely by Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits (“REMICs”) formed under §§ 860A-860G of Title 26 of the United States Code (the “REMIC Rules”). Under the REMIC rules, fixed-rate mortgages were contributed to a REMIC pool as trustee and payments on these mortgages were allocated disproportionately to bonds issued by the REMIC, including floating-rate and companion inverse-rate bonds. As a practical matter, the kinds of disproportionate allocations required to transform fixed-rate mortgages into floating-rate bonds must be made under the REMIC Rules.
Although the traditional method of issuing floating-rate mortgage-backed securities adds value, the method is inefficient. The REMIC Rules focus on defining a tax methodology for the disproportionate allocation of mortgage payments. In accomplishing this, the REMIC Rules incidentally impose significant economic limitations on the creation of floating-rate bonds. In particular, the REMIC rules materially limit the use of interest-rate derivative instruments.